A Fiery Valentine's Day For Two Firefighters In Love

Sophy Medina and Thomas Olsen with their son, Luca. The couple spent their first Valentine's Day together fighting the same fire — before ending up in the hospital.

StoryCorps

Listen

Listening...

/

Originally published on February 14, 2014 11:00 am

New York City firefighters Sophy Medina and Thomas Olsen don't work together very often, but their first Valentine's Day as a couple was an exception. They worked the same fire that night — and then ended up at the same hospital with minor injuries.

"There really wasn't much romantic about the night it was," Tommy tells Sophy, now his fiancee, on a visit to StoryCorps. "I kept coming over. I sat in your bed and was talking to you."

"We were wearing big, stinky, heavy gear," Sophy recalls. "We're all, like, sweaty, and everyone smells like a foot. ... The only thing that was romantic was the idea that it was Valentine's Day, and that we still managed to spend it together somehow," Sophy says.

The couple are now parents of a baby boy, Luca, who was born in December. "I worry about you when you go to work," Sophy tells Tommy. "When I was pregnant I would think about it a lot, like if something happened to you."

"Yeah, just never know. Blindfold yourself and put yourself in an oven — that's pretty much it," Tommy says. "If you asked me when I first got on the job, 'Oh, you're gonna have kids and marry a firefighter?' I'd be like, 'Never.' But if [a fire] happened on our block, we could take it out."

"You're such a nerd," Sophy replies.

"We'd take it down. You could be my backup."

"I would," Sophy laughs.

Audio produced for Morning Edition by Jasmyn Belcher with Emily Kwong.